Is it really about the “Meat Ban”?
- In Society
- 02:26 PM, Sep 16, 2015
- Sagar Kinhekar
With the current level of dialogue within intellectual sections in India, the unlikeliest of communities and unlikeliest of ideas become center of controversy. The recent controversy around so called ‘meat ban’ has been one such example. Jain community, normally one of the most peaceful of communities in India, is at the center of this controversy.
Let’s look at the history of this ban. Reportedly, BMC had passed a resolution in 1964 to ban meat sale in Mumbai during Paryushan. This could be due to the rich and powerful Gujarati Jain community. Right or wrong, this continued until 2004. The Congress led UPA government in Maharashtra went a step further and increased the duration by 2 more days. Now as it stands, BMC resolution bans meat for 2 days and Maharashtra government for 2 days, totaling to a 4 day meat ban in Mumbai. Some municipalities with sizeable Jain population went on to ban the meat for 8 days, like Mira-Bhayandar Municipality.
Now let’s analyze this issue from two aspects. One, whether such bans are justified? Two, if such bans have been there for years then why so much of noise now.
Is the ban justified?
Clearly in any democratic country, which respects freedom of choice given to its citizens by the constitution, such bans can’t be tolerated.
However, this particular ban does not really affect people in a very serious manner. One reason is that majority of meat eating Hindu communities refrain from eating meat during the time of Paryushan as it coincides with season of Hindu festivals. Shravan, followed by Ganpati, followed by Pitra Paksha and then Navratri ensure that meat sale is low during this time. Even if this was not a case, not eating meat for few days is not very unnatural for Indians including Indian Muslims, for majority of Indian population, meat is a delicacy to be cooked and served during special occasions. Very few eat or can afford to eat meat every day. Probably that was the reason why this meat ban in Mumbai with sizeable meat eating population has gone unnoticed so far.
Also this is not something new in India or other parts of the world. Who can forgets liquor ban on 2nd of October to pay respect to the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. One can argue that this is a violation of the right to free choice too! Many Muslim countries, including some of the modern ones like Dubai, ban eating (not just meat!) in open during day time when Muslims observe fast during Ramadan. One cannot go fishing in many parts of China after dusk during the “Ghost Festival”.
Indian Express published interesting stories about how Akbar and Jahangir banned animal slaughter during Paryushan too. And unfortunately there was no facility of frozen meat at that time; however frozen meat is a real option today.
Although no ban on free choice, much less on food, can be justified, in this particular instance the ban did very little or no real damage on the ground. Definitely the matter was not so important to have more than 15 days of primetime television is dedicated to.
The extraneous noise that succeeded the ‘ban’
As discussed earlier, this ban had been in place for last 50 years or so. Why is media still spending disproportionate time on this?
Primetime television in its “national debates” in Delhi studios has been screaming that this is an attack on fundamental rights by BJP and its “brahminical” parent organization RSS. Newspapers, having greater reach and arguably little more balanced reporting than television, have not been far behind in sensationalizing this issue. Initially many newspapers, especially English dailies, declared this as part of Hindutva agenda of BJP and RSS. They reported and opined in columns that this was a fascist agenda of BJP and it is playing the tune directed by Mohan Bhagwat.
Even celebrities were not far behind. They picked the news uo from newspapers and as celebrities always do, never understood the nuance. They too went after the BJP in general and Modi in particular. India was also called ‘Ban-i-stan’.
After outraging for few days without much result, there came additional fodder from an unlikely place. The two reactionary “Senas” jumped into the fray and started playing their Marathi card. Foolishly though, for they did not realize that they were threatening the same Hindu unity which their Patriarch Balasaheb Thackrey espoused for long time especially during 90s and later.
The proverbial last straw came when a photo showing few MNS workers displaying Chicken in front of Jain Temple! Was it a Jain temple? That’s what was reported by Asian Age. They published the photo, shown below with the news item. This image and outrage flew far and wide. Finally many from peaceful Jain community started reacting with angry mails and articles. The narrative in media today is fast changing from ‘BJP vs Meat-eaters’ to ‘Jains vs Hindus’ or ‘Jains vs Marathis’
Let’s go back to the photo of MNS protestors. The building in the backdrop was supposed to be a Jain temple! Some, like DNA called this building a Jain community hall. If we look at other photos of the building, we can see that the building was not a Jain Temple or community hall. It was actually a school. See one such picture below -
Why did a section of media report it to be a Jain building? Is the entire outrage by media against something which has been happening for 50 years, motivated? What is also interesting is that similar bans are imposed in Thane and Navi Mumbai municipalities. Thane and Navi Mumbai municipalities are ruled by Shiv Sena and NCP supported Mayors respectively. BMC itself is ruled by Shiv Sena. However, the media outrage was targeted only towards BJP to start with. In fact when Shiv Sena and MNS started talking against Jain community there was no outrage in media which otherwise claims to voice concerns of minorities.
That the whole outrage was aimed at showing BJP in bad light, is a simplistic explanation. The way exaggeration is coupled with wrong reporting, the aim looks to be to separate Jains from Hindus. Jains have always lived with Hindus like milk with water. An attempt to create a rift between them does indicate some deeper and dangerous plot somewhere. In fact I will not be surprised if I see such attempts of creating rift between Hindus and other communities like Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis in near future.
By Sagar Kinhekar
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